Improvement in floor-clgmf



Clntel (States aient ctiiiiiw.

Letters Patent No. 98,116, dated Decemberv 21, 1869 mztedated December 17, ]\869.

IMPRovEMENT 1N FLOOR-CLAW.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent andmaking 'part o f the same.

To all whom 'it may concern;

Be itknownthat I, JOSEPH B. SPENCER, of Norwich, in the State ot' Connecticut, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Floor-0lamps; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawingaand letters of reference marked thereon, making a part of this specification, in which- Figurc l is a plan view, and

Figure 2 is a side elevation.

To enable those skilled in the artto make and use niy invention, I now proceed to describe its oonstruction and operation. e

Similar letters in the drawings refer to like parts.

This invention is intended for tightening flooring belore nailing it, and consists in a lever pivoted to a tiret-piece, made 'so as to sit upon a oor-jost, said lever being so connected with a griping-apparatus and a frame, that by depressing the lever, the griping-apparatns is made to take fast hold upon the Hoor-juist, and the frame is made to press against the edge ofthe loose floor-boards, and tightly ooi'npress the sai-ne.

My foot-piece consists of `an oblong plate, e, of about the width of ordinary tloor-josts, and made to lie fiat upon one of them, with a wing, a', upon each side, connected with the plate by a curved neck, so as to bring the wings lower than the plate, and opposite the sides ot' the joist.

From the rear end ot' the plate a, two lugs, cc" a, project upward, and between them is pirated the bipartite lower end of a lever, A.

Near the lugs a", and to opposite sides of the lever A, are pivote'dthe upper ends ot' arms b l), the lower ends of which are pivoted to clips b b', which clips are d and upper cross-piece d", a rigid frame.

themselves jointed upon the flat cams c c, having teeth' upon their curved edges, said camsbeing jointed upon the forward ends of the. wings a'.

By' depressing the levers A, the cams, through thef agency of the arms l1, are rotated so as to approach one another, and bury their teeth in the Hoor-juist, on each side of which they are placed.

Tothe lever A are also pivoted the upper ends of l bars d' d', which bars form, with the lower cross-piece 4Around the' upper cross-piece is placed a spiral spring, one end ot' which is fastened -to said crosspiece, and the other end to the side of the lever A, so that when the lever is depressed, the spring is extended, and tends to bring it up again.

The depression of, the lever causes the lower crosspiece d to press against the loose tlooringwitlr which it Comes in Contact. Such pressure, being resisted by the griping of the cams c-upon the iloorjoist, effected, as before explained, by the same movement ofthe lever that operates th pressing-llame, the tiooringcan do nothing else than yield, and the boards are thus tightly compressed. On raising the lever again, the

pressing-flame is tak/en from the boards'ahthe same. 

